Kremlin urges Britain to share its poisoning case suspicions

MOSCOW (AP) - The Kremlin says it expects Britain to say what it knows about the identity of the two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy so that Russian officials can launch an investigation.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Friday that the allegations made by British-based investigative group Bellingcat and others can't serve as a basis for such an inquiry, adding that Russia expects Britain to produce official information.

Bellingcat identified one of the two men suspected to have carried out the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter as Col. Anatoly Chepiga of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU who was awarded Russia's highest medal in 2014.

Peskov said that he has checked and found no information about such a person receiving the award.

A web site of the British investigative group Bellingcat is seen on a computer screen in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. An investigative group in Britain named Bellingcat said one of the two suspects in the March poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K. is in fact Col. Anatoliy Chepiga with the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, who in 2014 was awarded Russia's highest medal. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

In this photo of Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016 taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site, military students stand during a visit of foreign military attaches as they visit the Russian Far-Eastern Higher Combined-Arms Command military academy in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. The British investigative group, Bellingcat, said Wednesday Sept. 26, 2018, that it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the U.K. as a highly decorated colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, saying that he graduated from the academy in Blagoveshchensk. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this frame grab dated June 24, 2017, taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site, an aerial view of an entrance to Russian Far-Eastern Higher Combined-Arms Command military academy in Blagoveshchensk, Russia. The British investigative group, Bellingcat, said Wednesday Sept. 26, 2018, that it has identified one of the two suspects in the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in the U.K. as a highly decorated colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, saying that he graduated from the academy in Blagoveshchensk. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)